Persecution of Christian Copts in Egypt on Rise as Muslim Brotherhood Consolidates Power

By Michael Terheyden
8/27/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Christians in the Middle East need our help as well as our prayers

President Mursi said he was going to be the president of all Egyptians, including the Copts. As we watch events unfold in Egypt, we have to ask ourselves, was that just a big lie, a ruse to gain power and Islamize Egypt? Does President Mursi mean to govern the Copts as a free and equal people or as the dhimmi class? Islamists seem emboldened in Egypt.

A Coptic Christian woman prays

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KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - There is growing fear among the Coptic Christian community as open violence escalates against them in Egypt. According to reports, this violence is in response to a letter calling on Muslims to kill Copts. Again, the world watches to see if Egypt's new president, Mohammed Mursi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, intends to follow up on his promise to be the president of all Egyptians.

On August 14, 2012, a publication called El Fegr posted a copy of a letter inciting violence against Christians. The title of the letter is "An Urgent and Important Notice." The letter refers to Christians as enemies of Allah's religion and slaves of the cross. It calls for Allah to curse them and for all Muslims to physically attack or kill Christians throughout Egypt until they either convert to Islam or submit to their status as dhimmi in accordance with verse 9:29 of the Koran.

Verse 9:29 of the Koran reads, "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, [even if they are] of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

Based on Islamic law, non-Muslims fall into one of two categories. The first category is made up of pagans. The second category is made up of "people of the book," meaning people whose religion is based on sacred texts. This includes Jews and Christians. Muslims refer to people who fall into this category as dhimmis.

The dhimmis were allowed to live in Muslim society and to practice their religion, but in return, they were required to pay a special poll tax known as the jizya. Payment of this poll tax was understood to be a mark of their submission to the Muslim authority. But it was more than that; it was a mark of total subjugation and humiliation, for the dhimmi class was more like a slave class in Muslim society.

The Copts, who, today, constitute about 10 percent of the Egyptian population and the largest religious minority in the Middle-East region, have suffered this humiliation many times since Egypt was conquered by invading Muslim armies in the seventh century. From the onset, the Copts were forced to convert to Islam or pay the jizya or die. Many Copts were martyred as a result. Those that paid the tax were forced into the dhimmi class.

Some Copts fear a return to the days of the dhimmi class and the jizya tax, as Islamist groups seem emboldened since the Muslim Brotherhood's rise to power and their man, Mohammed Mursi, became president. The Islamists responsible for authoring the letter mentioned above are an example. Such things are usually done in secrecy and utilize cryptic language. However, in this instance, they acted as if they had nothing to fear from the authorities.

They made no effort to hide their intentions or conceal their identities. In the letter, they called for violence against their fellow citizens; they promised to reward Muslims who kill any Christian Copt in Egypt; they invited Muslims to a rally meant to incite violence and gave the exact location, date and time; and they distributed the letter, with this incriminating information in it, in public for all to see.

Furthermore, it seems that the letter and the rally have had the desired effect. In an article titled "The serial killing of Copts has begun in Asyut," Menna Magdi reports that violence against the Copts ensued just hours after Islamist groups distributed copies of the letter.

The article tells us about the random killing of a Christian shoe-store owner. The name of the store owner is Refaat Eskander. He did not have any known quarrel with anyone. According to the story, unidentified men stormed into the shoe store early in the morning. He was alone in the store at the time. And they simply murdered him. A witness saw one of the murderers fleeing the scene and claimed that he was dressed like a Salafi.

In another report, F. Talaat of Al Akhbar News, writes that in Al Gallaweya Village, Sohag, Upper Egypt, "Christians are being beaten, their stores destroyed, and their properties plundered. The attackers are declaring that 'any Christian who dares to leave his house will be killed'; and the Copts are complaining that the police only arrive after the damage has been completely done."

Nageh Hozar is one of the victims of this violence. He said that one of the villagers, Mo'tassem Sedky Rashwan, a known felon, came into his brother Fady's supermarket to buy cigarettes. But instead of paying for the cigarettes, he told Fady to pay him a tribute, so they argued and Sedky left without paying. Sedky later came back to the store with a gang of his relatives. Nageh and his brothers, Fady and Thomas, were there at the time, and the gang beat them with clubs.

Then the gang of attackers looted four Coptic-owned ...

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1 - 10 of 15 Comments

Samir S. Halabi
3 months ago
History looks like being repeated once again.
There was once 1,000,000 Jews living throughout the Arab-World in the M.E. and North Africa.
Today there are fewer than 7,000 Jews living in the arab world, around 1,500 in Tunisia and
around 4,500 - 5,000 in Morocco, a few hundred still in the yemen and around 35 to 40 jews in Bahrain.
The Coptic Christians number around 8,000,000 around 10% of the total Egyptian population, they now must realize how the once Jewish population of 80,000 suffered at the hands of their Muslim countrymen, now it seems the time has come for history to rear it's ugly head and persecute, torture, murder or forcing people to convert to islam. The innocent Egyptian Coptic Christians who have practiced their faith in Egypt at least 300 hundred years before the dawning of Islam some 1,460 years ago. Islam want's to just dominate everyone and every country, in the end it will self-destruct.
JoAnn
8 months ago
We better be concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood being in our own government also. Some in homeland security positions. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. Obama has appointed MB members and supports them in the middle-east. What does that tell you? All references to MB and radical Islam has been purged in the FBI and CIA files. "Cair" has seen to that. Those persecutions will soon be on American soil. God bless.
michael terheyden
8 months ago
Judy Claar, Please see the link toward the end of this article for another article I wrote, "Call to Solidarity: Christian Refugees from the Middle East Need Your Help." In that article, I mention an organization, Arab Refugee Christians in the USA, and I include their E-mail address and a link to their website. They need all kinds of help, including financial assistance. They will be glad to explain where the money goes and what it does. God bless you.
Judy Claar
8 months ago
Deacon Keith, If we donate money, to whom does it go? and what does it do?
i am shocked, that a so called, loving peaceful people, believe in something so barbaric! President Mursi should be called on such activities by the U.S. President. By our president not summoning him, is a silence that speaks volumes! Egypt should be denied any monies from the U.S. until peace and solidarity prevail.
Is this not fair social justice? Or, am I being harsh out of compassion for our Coptic brothers and sisters?
TO ALL:
May I suggest we all write our senators, congressmen, and pray. God Be With You...
robert matzinger
8 months ago
Recent history of the murder and persecution of our Coptic Christain brothers and sisters in Egypt with no repercussions indicates that muslims will continue to do this. And "the Muslim Brotherhood" will take the lead in this and continue the persecution of all Christains in Egypt.

All our govt under Obama will do, is to continue to lend (give) monies to Egypt to continue to prop up the Muslim Brotherhood govt so it can do as it chooses and if some of this is persecution of Christains, our govt and Obama could care less.
MJGT
8 months ago
Excuse me, Grover. I was wrong to say, "Every single thing you said is false." What you said about sin and us being our brother's keeper is excellent.
MJGT
8 months ago
To Grover Weaver: Every single thing you said is false. Pope Benedict XVI is speaking about the suffering of the Copts and all Christians presently suffering persecution in Muslim and communist countries. He is also speaking about the rise of totalitarianism and the growing persecution of Christians in the West. Many Bishops have also spoken about these evils. The Catholic Church also played a major role in the formation of the new nation of Southern Sudan. The Church also played a major role in ending slavery in much of the world. I also recall that the Church saved more Jews from the Nazis than anyone else, other than the allied armies. I do not know what you mean by "little ones." However, the Church has spoken out against abortion and euthanasia more than anyone else. And the Church's great love for the poor and downtrodden has been repeatedly proven throughout history. Furthermore, I believe that the Church is the single greatest defender of human dignity and freedom in the world today.
Grover Weaver
8 months ago
Why must President Obama get all of the blame for being silence at the suffering of the Copts Christians when Pope Benedict XVl and all of Christendom is silence and to be blamed for the pain suffered in the land that protected the Blessed Virgin and the Fruit of her womb.

Christ's Church to its shame has a history rooted in the sin of silence. The church was silence when the African Church was taken into slavery; silence when the Jews were taken to Auschwitz; and, we all were shamed by our silence when we suffered our "little ones" to be abused by the hand that fed us.

This sin happens when we do not do what we should do: we are indeed the keeper of our brother.
Dan
8 months ago
I bet we don't hear a thing about this from the Obama administration. The same thing has already happened in Iraq and will probably be happening in Syria before we know it. And just think, Christians and Muslims lived how many decades in peace under Mubarak, who was one of America's best allies in the region? But our dear president threw him under the bus in favor of these barbarians.
terry
8 months ago
An equivalent analogy would be if the Federal gov't of the US were to set out purging folks of the LDS faith. How I wish religious leaders and presidential candidates would just make mention of what is going on in the MIddle east! Where oh where is the courage?

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